Surprise, Surprise
by Cassandra Cassidy
Summary: Demyx knew that his first real mission was going to be a total drag, if only because his chaperon was going to have to literally drag him on it kicking and screaming. Axel had absolutely no qualms doing just that. Genfic. Oneshot. Pre-358/2 Days.


_Author's Notes__: Written as a Christmas gift for LoverofSilverHairedBishies; finally got around to posting it. There are no real spoilers for 358/2 Days, but certain things will make more sense if you've played it._

_This takes place well before Roxas joins the Organization._

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**Surprise, Surprise**

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Demyx was definitely Not Excited. Part of this was of course due to the lack of a heart he currently had, but the memories he'd retained from his former life indicated that he wouldn't have been excited even if he could have.

Today he would be going on his first "mission" for the Organization. To begin with, he'd only really joined their creepy cult thing because it was better than trying to make munny by playing his sitar out on the street in order to rent a place to stay. Or so he'd thought. He was seriously beginning to reevaluate that assumption.

Having no heart to care with, he didn't really care about getting his heart back – an interesting catch-22. Likewise, he didn't really care about helping to rebuild Kingdom Hearts. What he _did_ care about, in his own way, was his own health and safety, and he was concerned for both at the moment. Saïx was looking particularly predatory today, and he'd just assigned him Axel as a partner for this first mission ever.

Axel, Demyx had decided early on, was someone to Avoid At All Costs. (Saïx was on that list as well.) The redhead was clearly unstable. He had issues, to put it mildly, and Demyx's self-preservation instinct instructed him to stay far, far away.

So much for that.

"You will be performing reconnaissance in Twilight Town," Saïx was saying, and Demyx nodded appropriately, only just barely paying heed. He snapped to attention, though, when a hand suddenly slapped down on his shoulder, gripping it tightly.

"So they're finally letting you do field work, huh?" Axel greeted him cheerfully. "Should be a nice change of scenery from the castle, anyway."

"Yeah," Demyx said vaguely, trying at once to inch out from under the hand that was still gripping him far too tightly for his liking, and to remember the new song he'd been thinking up since he couldn't, at the moment, write it down.

Saïx was looking annoyed now.

"Are we _boring _you, Demyx?" he asked snidely.

Demyx gulped, and while his mind raced over the pros and cons of answering that question truthfully, Axel stepped in.

"Cut him some slack, man; we were all pretty zombie-like when we first got started. Am I right?"

Saïx grudgingly conceded Axel's point, and just like that, Demyx was in the clear as he wisely kept his mouth shut.

"As I was saying, Lexaeus mentioned on his last excursion to that world that he caught a glimpse of what may have been a Heartless. Your mission is to confirm whether or not this is truly the case."

The question passed by his lips before he could even think about the ramifications.

"If Lexaeus is the one who saw it in the first place, how come he's not the one going back to confirm it?"

Saïx's expression darkened more than Demyx had thought possible. Once again, Axel interceded.

"Don't be silly; we get to do the grunt work because we're the new blood. Simple as that. The higher-ups have got more important stuff to do, I'm sure."

Demyx thought he detected the slightest hint of sarcasm in Axel's voice at that last, but he decided not to comment on it. He tucked the information away in the back of his mind for safekeeping along with his own opinion of the situation.

"Well, no time like the present," Axel said, summoning a portal and motioning Demyx toward it. Demyx was happy to oblige, if only to get out from under Saïx's death glare.

As soon as they were through the corridor of darkness, Axel dropped the cheery façade.

"Man, he sure is high up there on his horse," he complained, clearly referring to Saïx. "We joined the Organization at the same time, but he's bossing me around like hired help. What am I, a babysitter?"

"You could send me back to the castle and do this mission solo," Demyx put in helpfully.

"No thanks. Let's just get this over with quickly so we can enjoy the free time afterward."

Demyx was of the opinion that they ought to enjoy the free time now and forever, but he didn't dare say so. He didn't know Axel that well, and he'd hate to get ratted out to the Superior; his life, such as it was, could be forfeit if he said the wrong thing to the wrong person. These guys weren't a very merciful bunch. Axel's plan was the next best alternative. The sooner they finished this mission, the better.

The redhead was looking at him expectantly. Demyx shifted from foot to foot, fidgeting under the scrutiny.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

"We can get started any day now," the other drawled. Demyx shot him a bewildered look, so he continued, "This is _your_ mission; I'm just here for backup. You set the pace, so try to stay focused, would ya?"

Demyx glanced to his left, then his right.

"Don't see any Heartless… are we done now?"

Axel grabbed his arm and dragged him off down the street.

"Real funny, wise guy. You're cracking me up."

Demyx then found himself being shoved roughly forward through a brick archway.

"This is the center of town. Lexaeus said in his report that he saw the alleged Heartless heading toward that gap in the wall there." Axel pointed. "See with the trees?"

"So? How many days ago was that?" Demyx asked. "It could be anywhere by now."

"Exactly. Which is why you need to start looking for clues."

Demyx stared at him blankly.

"You know – signs of Heartless activity?"

They stared at each other for a few moments before Axel finally spoke again, a dangerous edge creeping into his voice.

"Are you _trying_ to make me mad?" he asked. "'Cause it's starting to work…"

Demyx shook his head and held up his hands in a placating gesture. He hoped that he was only imagining the smell of smoke.

"I just don't really want to be here," he admitted cautiously.

"Well join the club. Oh wait – you did that already. You're in the Organization now. That means missions. Unless you want to leave, but they don't really support that kind of thing."

Demyx grimaced as he emphasized his point by making a slashing motion across his throat.

"By the trees, huh?" he asked with false enthusiasm, taking off in the direction Axel had indicated.

"Signs of Heartless… signs of Heartless…" he muttered to himself, eyes darting around. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, exactly. Did Heartless leave tracks? Did they climb trees? Demyx found that he couldn't seem to recall any of what he'd been briefed about in regards to the things.

His attempt to remember was thwarted as he was forced to hide behind a particularly large tree. A group of local kids was passing through the forest on their way back to town.

"There've been rumors of a haunting in the underground passage," one of them was saying. "Nobody's seen anything, but I've heard a lot of talk about mysterious scratching noises, the floor rumbling – wanna check it out?"

"Not me! No way do I want some ghost following me around. Let's just go to the beach like we said we were going to," one of the others replied with a shiver.

"Oh, all right…" the first mumbled with obvious disappointment, his voice fading as he and his friends moved past and away from Demyx's hiding spot.

Demyx had to agree with the one who would rather visit the beach than go ghost-hunting. The beach sounded pretty good right about now…

"Interesting."

Axel's proximity right behind him was unexpected, and Demyx nearly tripped over an upraised tree root as he skittered away.

"What is?" he asked, still in a defensive crouch from the start Axel had given him.

Axel raised an eyebrow.

"You don't think so?"

"Think so _what_?"

"You're hopeless," Axel said, throwing his hands up in the air in defeat. "Do I have to spell it out for you? What might possibly be interesting about a haunting here in this _particular_ town?"

Demyx scratched his head, straightening his posture.

"It could be the Heartless that Lexaeus saw?" he ventured.

"B-I-N-G-O," Axel chimed. "Now you're using that water-logged brain of yours."

"So _now_ are we done?" Demyx asked, trying but failing to keep the whine out of his voice.

"Um, no."

Demyx drooped, and Axel slung an arm around his shoulders.

"I think what we need here is a little incentive. Y'know, because apparently 'not getting offed by the higher-ups' isn't good enough. Cheer up and get this mission done and I'll treat you to a surprise at the end of the day."

"What kind of surprise?" Demyx asked warily, not trusting the other in the slightest. Axel wasn't exactly the nicest guy he knew. His idea of a surprise was probably flammable.

"A local specialty," Axel replied with a grin. "It's worth it; I promise."

"You've been here before?"

"Yeah, sure; lots of times."

This was the first Demyx had heard of it.

"What made you start coming here in the first place?" he asked, stalling for time. He really, _really_ didn't want to find any Heartless.

"I think you mean 'who' made me. Saïx ordered me to come here a while back. He'd only just found this world at the time; couldn't tell ya why he and the Superior are so interested in it, but hey, I'm just following orders, same as you."

He shrugged melodramatically, releasing his hold on Demyx's shoulders.

"You need me to show you where the entrance to the underground passage is, or do you think you could try doing something on your own, here?"

"All right, all right," Demyx said sulkily, waving him off as he headed back in the direction they'd come. He had no real idea where he was going, but he got the impression that whatever the 'underground passage' was, it was probably somewhere in the town, not outside it.

He wandered aimlessly for a while, half hoping that Axel would get bored and leave so that he could go find a quiet corner and play his sitar. Much like the element he controlled, Demyx had a tendency to just sort of meander along. He'd have to reach his destination sometime, after all, so who cared how long it took? Besides his superiors, obviously, but they were an impatient bunch.

Eventually, he happened to look up and saw a large, numbered entryway in front of him.

"Congratulations," Axel piped up from a few paces behind him. "You found it."

"Yay," Demyx responded, unenthused.

Then something occurred to him that he hadn't noticed until just this moment: Axel was carrying his chakrams. The dual weapons glistened menacingly in the perpetually-setting sunlight.

"You don't think we'll have to _fight_ this Heartless, do you?" he asked feebly.

"Maybe, maybe not. It wasn't part of our orders, but then again, if it attacks us first… Well, you get the idea."

Not for the first time, Demyx wondered if they really couldn't feel. Because he was _pretty _darned sure that he was feeling an overwhelming sense of dread right now.

He summoned his sitar, not wanting to take any chances. Gripping it tightly in case he needed to swing it at anything, he crept through the entrance, Axel hot on his heels. Strangely enough, the other Nobody's presence was actually somewhat of a comfort at the moment. Axel _liked_ fighting, and he was real good at it, too. If Demyx had been alone, and if he hadn't already bailed on this mission by now, he certainly would have done so at the prospect of having to do battle. Now, for better or for worse, he had no choice but to go through with it.

He got the impression that it was probably for worse, but that might just have been the pessimist in him.

The underground passage was, to Demyx's surprise, pretty well-lit. He picked his way along carefully, peeking around corners and keeping close to the wall. Axel, by contrast, simply walked out in the open hallway, matching his pace to Demyx's own but seeming fairly exasperated at the level of caution he was taking.

Finally, they reached a promising-looking doorway. If there _was_ a Heartless down here, Demyx decided, it would definitely be through this door. The doorway in question was wide open, but the interior of the room it led into was pitch black. Demyx clung to his sitar so hard that he was sure he'd have to re-tune it later.

If there was a later.

His legs wobbled a bit.

"You gonna make it, man?" Axel asked, eyeing him critically. "You look ready to pass out or something."

"SHHH!" Demyx hissed, squinting into the dark room and hoping that the Heartless hadn't heard Axel's too-loud voice. Then, very quietly, he asked, "Do you think you could, um, help me see in there a little better?"

"Thought you'd never ask," Axel said deviously, and just like that, he set his chakrams alight. Demyx jumped backward from the open flames in shock.

Unfortunately, 'backward' happened to be into the darkened room.

He landed on his backside with a thud and silently cursed the fact that pain didn't count as something Nobodies couldn't feel. As he was scrambling back to his feet, he thought he heard a noise. Surprisingly enough, he couldn't see much by the light of the twin flames Axel had brought in with him. The noise began to grow in volume. It sounded like one long, constant, single note. And it was coming closer.

He was about to ask Axel if he could hear it too when he noticed something in the dark. Two tiny pinpricks of yellow light were visible in the direction of the sound he was hearing.

Those were coming closer, too.

"AAAAAAAAAAAA—!!!"

Demyx was too stunned to dodge out of the way as the figure attached to the yellow eyes barreled toward him, the noise making itself known as the figure's screaming as it fled from the inner reaches of the tunnel they were in. Lucky for him, Axel was significantly less stunned, and, dismissing his fiery weapons, he grabbed Demyx for the fourth time that day, yanking him back and out of the way as the figure flew past.

Watching it retreat, Demyx realized that it wasn't a Heartless at all. Rather, it was a young boy with a drooping mage's hat on, running and screaming for all he was worth. Which left only one question…

"What's he running from?" Demyx asked with great trepidation.

"Only one way to find out," Axel stated the obvious, bringing his weapons back to bear.

They didn't have to venture much further. The floor began to shake beneath Demyx's feet and a deafening roar filled his ears. Axel doubled his efforts, bathing the area immediately around them in light.

Demyx did not like what he saw.

"AAAAAAAAAAAA—OOMPH!"

He had been well on his way to running away and screaming right behind the boy from before, but Axel caught him around his midsection, impeding his progress.

"Looks like we found the Heartless!" Axel said, letting go of him as he dropped into a fighting stance. "Doesn't look like he's planning to let us leave, either."

"Why me? Why did it have to be a Heartless? Why did it have to be a _giant_, _Nobody-eating_ Heartless? Why did I ever agree to go on this mission?" Demyx whimpered, panic rising in his voice.

Axel opened his mouth to retort but was cut off as the gargantuan creature swung at him with a massive claw. He barely managed to dodge, flinging his chakrams up to spin defensively in front of him.

Then the Heartless dove underground.

The rumbling Demyx had felt beneath his feet resumed again as the mole-like Heartless burrowed around below them. No wonder they hadn't seen the thing when they first arrived.

"Get ready!" Axel shouted. "It could come up anywhere!"

In hindsight, Demyx decided it really wasn't a surprise at all that the thing surfaced right underneath him.

Flailing wildly, Demyx tried to keep his balance on the Heartless's back as it rose from the ground and took another swing at Axel. Thankfully, his eyes had begun to adjust to the dark, because Axel was far too busy defending himself at the moment to worry about providing light to see by.

The thing was as fast as it was big, and it was all Demyx could do to keep from falling off as it raced around the tunnel trying to catch Axel, who was jumping and diving nimbly away from it as best he could under the circumstances.

"A LITTLE HELP WOULD BE NICE," his cohort hollered at him after a few desperate moments.

"What do you want me to do?!" Demyx squeaked. "I'm not a fighter!"

"Whack it in the head with that oversized guitar of yours! I don't know; just do _something_!"

"It's a _sitar_," Demyx complained. "S-I-T-A-R – got it memorized?" he added, taking the opportunity to throw Axel's favorite taunt back at him.

"It's going to be a pile of ASHES if you don't hurry up and _do something_," Axel ground out, seizing his chance and throwing one flaming chakram at the beast's head. It connected right between its eyes, and the Heartless bellowed in pain, rearing up on its hind legs and nearly throwing Demyx into the tunnel wall.

"Um, um, um…" Demyx fumbled for a good grip on his instrument-slash-weapon as he continued to hold on for dear life with his knees. He began strumming a frantic series of harsh chords, summoning pillars of water in front of the Heartless's legs to try to slow it down. This plan unfortunately backfired, because it was then that the Heartless finally seemed to notice the unwanted passenger on its back.

Demyx yelped and slid down to the ground as the Heartless craned its neck to try to snap him up in its jaws. He ran to where Axel was standing; the latter was preparing a volley of fireballs to fling at the Heartless, who immediately turned and lunged for them again.

They were flung in opposite directions by the impact, and by the time Demyx had righted himself, the monster was already targeting Axel again.

A sudden realization had him shouting at the other in warning.

"Quit using magic!"

Axel rolled out of the way of another attack.

"What?!"

"I said, 'Quit using magic!'"

"I heard what you _said_," Axel snapped. "How is that going to _help_?"

"It can sense you casting it!" Demyx explained hurriedly. "It has no ears, and look at its eyes – it's practically blind! But it can sense magic! That's why it didn't attack me until I summoned water, and probably why it was chasing that little mage kid from before!"

The flames around Axel's weapons immediately sputtered out. As he ran around to the left of the Heartless, the oversized thing swung about wildly at the spot where he had been a moment ago, unable to locate its prey.

They stood together against the far wall, panting as they watched it lumber about, roaring in frustration.

"Looks like you were right; I'm impressed," Axel said appreciatively. "But we've still got the problem of taking it out."

"Why do we have to do that?" Demyx asked, his eyes following its progress as it stomped back and forth. "Our mission was recon; we were just supposed to _find _it. Destroying it wasn't part of our objective…"

Axel gave the beast a once-over, then dismissed his weapons entirely.

"Right you are!" he said, suddenly cheerful again. "We'll let our _superiors_ handle this mess."

"…Really?" Demyx asked hopefully; he couldn't believe Axel was really going to let him get out of fighting the thing.

"Really. Let's get the heck out of here."

And with that, he summoned a corridor and ducked through. Demyx was quick to follow him.

When he stepped through to the other side, he found himself back in the center of Twilight Town, blinking against the dim-but-not-dim-enough light. Axel was already over by what looked like one of the shops, and when he returned to Demyx, he was holding something behind his back.

"As promised, I've got your surprise for you," he said. "I'll give it to you when we get to the clock tower."

"Why the clock tower?" Demyx had to ask.

"Because it's got the best view."

So saying, he took off up the street, moving the surprise smoothly in front of him before Demyx could see it. Demyx followed after him, still sort of reeling from their encounter with the Heartless and wondering why they couldn't just return to the castle.

When they reached the clock tower, Axel then insisted that they climb to the _top_. By the time they got there, Demyx was convinced that he should have taken his chances with the Heartless.

"Remind me again," he panted, huffing and puffing as he propped himself against the outer wall of the tower with one arm, "why we couldn't just use the corridor of darkness to get up here. Or the elevator. Or anything other than the stairs."

"Takes all the fun out of it," Axel said. "Cheer up; now you've really earned this."

And he revealed the surprise he'd been hiding.

"Ice cream?" Demyx asked as Axel shoved one of the two treats into his hand.

"That's right. Not just any ice cream, either. This is sea salt ice cream; I've only ever come across it here in Twilight Town."

Demyx watched as Axel sat down on the ledge of the balcony they were on. The other let his legs hang over the side before digging in to his own ice cream. Demyx chose instead to slump down and sit against the very solid, very not-hanging-over-a-long-drop wall of the tower itself.

"How come you're giving it to me?" Demyx addressed Axel's back.

Axel turned to look exasperatedly at him over his shoulder.

"'Cause we're celebrating your first successful mission, man. What better reason can you think of?"

Demyx didn't know. He took a tentative lick of the ice cream, then another as he tried to determine whether or not he actually liked the salty-yet-sweet taste. It was certainly unique, that was for sure.

They ate their ice cream in silence. Demyx, for one, was unsure of what would be safe to talk about with Axel, and Axel, for his part, seemed uninterested in pursuing a conversation. Finishing with his ice cream first, Demyx cleaned his hands carefully on the bottom of his coat, not wanting to get his sitar strings all sticky, then summoned the instrument and began plucking at it. His earlier thought had been correct: it needed tuning.

Absorbed in his task as he was, it took him a little while to notice that Axel had turned around on the railing and was watching him. In fact, he would have kept on not noticing him if it weren't for the fact that Axel threw his empty ice cream stick at him, bouncing it with precision right off the top of Demyx's head.

"Ow! Hey!" he protested, swatting the offensive object out of his hair and thanking his lucky stars that it hadn't gotten _stuck_ there.

"Not even a 'thank you,'" Axel muttered grumpily, running a hand through his own hair, and Demyx got the distinct impression that Axel was disappointed about something. But that wasn't supposed to be possible.

"Uh… Thank you for the ice cream," Demyx said belatedly. When Axel rolled his eyes, he added, "And you're welcome for saving you from that Heartless."

Axel opened his mouth, paused, then closed it again, apparently at a loss for a decent retort. It took him a few moments, but finally, he replied.

"All right; fair enough. I deserved that. You did good, number IX; I'll make sure Saïx hears about it. And hey," he added with a grin, "since I'm such a nice guy I'll even neglect to tell him about our slow start and all the whining."

"Gee, thanks," Demyx said, rolling his own eyes.

They both stood up, Demyx dismissing his sitar as he did so.

"Guess we can RTC then," Axel said, and there was that sense of disappointment again, Demyx noted.

It appeared that he wasn't the only one who was less than fond of his lot in life at the moment.

"We should partner up on missions more often," Demyx said, trying to cheer him up. "You can do all the fighting and I can use my brilliant deductive reasoning for the recon bits."

Axel let out a snort of laughter.

"Yeah; sounds like a great plan. Good luck convincing Saïx."

He summoned the return portal and motioned for Demyx to go through. Scratching the back of his head and feeling like he was walking into a trap, Demyx did as instructed, coming out in the Grey Area on the other side.

Saïx was, thankfully, not present. In fact, the room was empty. Axel gave him one last personal-space-invading pat on the shoulder before bidding him good night and heading off to his room. Demyx was quick to do likewise; he was ready for some well-earned Z's.

As he kicked off his boots and collapsed into bed, he decided that, aside from Axel's sarcasm, and his teasing, and his general moodiness, he wasn't all that bad to be stuck with on a mission. And besides the Heartless, and the fighting, and the climbing of about a billion stairs to reach the top of the clock tower, the mission itself hadn't been all that bad, either.

All in all, it had been a pretty exciting day.

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_End Notes__: I was asking myself as I played 358/2 Days what it was about Roxas that made Axel decide to start up the whole sea-salt ice cream tradition after missions, since he did it from their very first day together onwards. It made me think that maybe it was a test that Axel had devised to determine the other Organization members' true personalities and their worthiness to be Axel's friends – he'd see what they acted like when they were one-on-one with him during downtime, away from the others and doing something very __**human**__. That, coupled with the scene in 358/2 Days where Axel sort of sticks up for Demyx when Roxas rags on him made me think that maybe Demyx came closest to passing said test (but he didn't really). Snare had requested a fic with these two characters, and I thought I'd give the idea a shot. Hopefully it wasn't too far-fetched?_


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